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Two terrorists, including a "high-value target", were killed in Pakistan's Khyber Pakhtunkhwa on Friday, Dawn reported citing Pakistan military's media wing.
Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) said security forces conducted an intelligence-based operation (IBO) in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa's Tank district, on the "reported presence of terrorists". It said that during an intense fire exchange in the operation, two terrorists, including HVT Gul Yousaf Toor, were killed. The ISPR stated that Toor had "remained actively involved in numerous terrorist activities against security forces, including high-profile terrorist attacks in Tank and Dera Ismail Khan districts as well as extortion and target killing of innocent civilians," Dawn reported. "He was highly wanted by the law enforcement agencies and [the] government had fixed head money of 2.5 million PKR on him," the ISPR added. Notably, Pakistan has witnessed an uptick in terror activities in the past year, especially in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan after the banned militant Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan had ended its ceasefire with the government in November 2022. In the deadliest attack on security forces in the outgoing year, at least 23 Pakistan Army soldiers were martyred and more than 30 troops wounded on December 12 after militants belonging to the Tehreek-i-Jihad Pakistan stormed a compound used by the military in Dera Ismail Khan's Daraban area, Dawn reported. Earlier on Tuesday, Pak security forces killed four terrorists, including a suicide bomber, in an intelligence-based operation (IBO) in the North Waziristan district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Last month, as many as 25 Pakistan soldiers were killed in two separate incidents on a single day, including a terrorist attack in Dera Ismail Khan, which killed 23 soldiers and a military operation in the Kolachi and Darazinda areas of the KP that in which two army personnel were killed. Pakistan, in 2023, saw a disturbing surge in suicide attacks by terrorists, reaching the highest level since 2014, according to Geo News. According to an annual security report issued by the Centre for Research and Security Studies (CRSS), Pakistan witnessed 1,524 violence-related fatalities and 1,463 injuries from 789 terror attacks and counter-terror operations in 2023 -- marking a record six-year high. Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan provinces were the primary centres of violence, accounting for over 90 per cent of all fatalities and 84 per cent of attacks, including incidents of terrorism and security forces operations, Dawn reported. The data gathered by PICSS stated that security forces remained the primary targets of these terrorist attacks, with civilians constituting the second-largest victim category. At least 48 per cent of deaths (157) and 58 per cent of injuries (340) were inflicted upon security personnel, the data stated. The number of civilian casualties was closer to these statistics with 130 deaths and 242 injured. Comparing the data to the preceding year, 2022, the report reveals a distressing 93 per cent increase in the number of suicide attacks, a shocking 226 per cent rise in resultant deaths, and a troubling 101 per cent surge in the number of injured individuals, according to Dawn. (ANI)
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